Five Key Fundamentals you need to know for a successful Search Engine Marketing Strategy

Gregg Kell, March 2005

Kell Solutions

Search engine optimization or SEO is the key to a successful on-line business.

You can get search engine optimization training from e-books, on-line tutorials, or you can hire a search engine optimization specialist. The success of SEO services has revealed an over 200% growth over the past two years.

All this excitement has triggered a rush of search engine optimization services, SEO consultants and SEO Experts. But to succeed you must have a realistic search engine marketing strategy that understands this new advertising medium. Here are five key fundamentals you need to know for a successful Search Engine Marketing Strategy.

Flexibility

The success of your search engine marketing strategy in the end depends on your keyword selection. A good search engine strategy targets a broad range of keywords including little words as well as big words.

If you are not familiar with Overture, visit the site. Available toos can help you select the best keywords for your website. When starting out, it’s much better to look for small bargains than to fight for one or two big and popular keyword phrases.

Balance

Here are a few simple rules to follow when building your e-commerce website.

While paid search engine advertising is a great Internet marketing tool, you will profit from a balanced search engine marketing strategy that also includes organic search engine optimization services and link building. You might consider hiring a professional SEO Company, staffed with SEO Professionals to provide this service for you.

At some point, you’ll also want to grow your search engine marketing channel. Studies have shown that organic listings are chosen first by 70% of the people viewing search results. That means you can sharply increase your search engine traffic by appearing in the organic results on the first page of Google and Yahoo.

Measurement

It’s important to measure how much business is being generated (ROI) by the marketing dollars you are spending on your search engine marketing strategy.

Do rising bid prices scare you away from search engine marketing? They shouldn't if you know which of your ads are winning customers and which are not. Measurement can tell you that and skilled split testing and maximize the conversion rate. Split testing is a key value-add provided by professional Search Engine Optimization Professionals.

Persistence

Search engine campaigns are easy to set up and for that reason easy to neglect. You must monitor your campaigns regularly because the search engines often introduce new features that can help you market your on-line business. If you neglect your campaign, even for a short while, you might find that you've dropped out of sight. An ongoing relationship with Search Engine Optimization Professionals can reduce this risk.

Curiosity

Don‘t be afraid to "tinker" with the creative part of your search engine marketing strategy. Sometimes a small word or text change can double or even triple your click-through rate or conversion rate.

Try it, just to see what happens. It won't ruin your budget and might just put you at the top of your game.

In conclusion, the Internet is the most cost effective marketing opportunity ever. By mastering these five fundamental elements to search engine marketing you can be among the top performing websites in your industry.

Gregg Kell is President of Kell Solutions, a website design firm and search engine optimization firm based in Laguna Niguel, CA. Permission is granted to re-publish this article providing it is published in its entirety without exclusion including this Author’s Block and imbedded links. The author may be contacted via email.